Seasickness on an Alanya Boat Trip: What Actually Helps

Most people do not get seasick on an Alanya boat trip, and the reason is mostly geography. The boats leave the harbour under Kızıl Kule — the brick Red Tower that has stood over the quay since 1226 — and turn west into the lee of the castle headland. That western stretch runs below the cliffs, past Pirates' Cave, the Lovers' Grotto and the Phosphorus Cave, and the water there is usually calm. Still, the Mediterranean is a sea and not a lake, and a breeze can build a short chop on the open water. If you already know you are sensitive to motion, take something before you board, not after you start feeling it.

That is as far as our medical advice goes. Which remedy suits you is a question for a pharmacist. There is one on almost every street here and they hear it daily.

Before, not after

The mistake we see most is waiting to find out. Someone boards, sits up in the wind on the open deck, starts to feel wrong out past Cleopatra Beach, and only then goes looking for a remedy. By then it is uphill work. Take whatever you use at the hotel, before the pickup. On the quay is already late.

Two days that are not on the sea at all

This is the advice most sellers cannot give you, because they only have sea boats. Two of our trips never touch the Mediterranean:

• Green Canyon — €33 adult, €20 child (4–11), nine hours, daily, buffet lunch included. The boat runs on the Oymapınar reservoir: fresh water held between mountain walls, no swell, no open horizon.
• Manavgat and the bazaar — €43 / €30, nine hours, Mondays and Thursdays only, buffet lunch included. Also inland, also fresh water, with the market attached.

That is two, and there is no third. One honest warning about both: the water inland is cold, straight off the mountains, and it is a different swim from a warm cove on the coast. But if what you dread is the motion, flat fresh water is a real answer rather than a hopeful one.

If you want the sea, start short

Less time afloat is less exposure, and two of our departures run four hours.

• Sunset boat — €35 / €25, four hours, daily. No meal, no drinks package, no music: it is the plain version. Plan your date around sunset.
• Night disco yacht — €48 / €34, four hours, daily, twelve guests maximum. There is a bar on board and no meal — and alcohol is not what an uneasy stomach needs.

The longer days

These are the trips people usually mean by a boat trip in Alanya. They run six hours and up, so read the hours before you read the price.

• Pirate boat — €20 / €14, seven hours, daily, lunch included. Two adults and two children pay €68.
• Starcraft — €35 / €25, nine hours, daily, lunch included.
• Fishing tour — €50 / €35, six hours, daily, twenty guests maximum, hot lunch. A boat that sits and waits is not where we would start you.
• Suluada — €43 / €30, full day, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays only. The island is off Adrasan, roughly 200 km west, so a large part of that day is road rather than water. No meal is recorded for this one.

On all of them children aged four to eleven pay the child price, and children up to and including three travel free.

The road counts too

People who get seasick are often the same people who get carsick, and our pickup runs the whole strip — Okurcalar, Avsallar, İncekum, Türkler, Konaklı, Alanya centre, Oba, Kestel, Mahmutlar, Kargıcak — over 40 km end to end. If your hotel sits at the far end of that, the coach is part of your day before any boat is. Suluada is a different order of magnitude again.

On the water

The dull tricks are the ones that work: fresh air rather than an enclosed deck, a spot nearer the middle of the boat than the bow, eyes on the coastline or the horizon rather than on a phone. The big day boats pass the caves from the water instead of sailing into them, so the shore stays in view for most of the run west, which helps. Swim stops are in sheltered coves under the cliffs, and being in the water settles most people faster than anything they can do on board.

What we cannot promise

We cannot promise flat water on a given day and will not pretend otherwise. Our boats sail in light rain; only severe weather stops a departure. What we can tell you is that payment is taken on the day you sail, never in advance, so a cancelled departure costs you nothing, and that you can cancel free of charge up to 24 hours before. Boarding is from the quay and there are stairs between decks; no boat we run is step-free.

If motion is the thing on your mind, start with the Green Canyon day at €33 and find out how you feel about being on water at all. If you would rather test the sea itself, €20 on the pirate boat is the least you can pay for a sea day with us — and if the sea turns out not to be for you, you learned it for €20.